Texas Soaker To Get Underway Tomorrow...

Moisture from former Hurricane Miriam (yellow arrows) will combine with lift from an upper level storm system (red circled area) to produce a widespread rain event across the Lone Star State on Friday and Saturday.The heaviest rains will fall on Friday Night and Saturday, with a swath of widespread 3-6 inch rainfall forecast from the Big Bend, Eastward across the Edwards Plateau, including the Austin-San Antonio corridor along I-35:Present indications...

Read More

One of Our "Eyes in the Sky" Goes Blind...

Above is a recent water vapor satellite image of the lower 48 United States.  I'm sure your attention is immediately drawn to the right hand side of the image which is "blank" insofar as cloud cover (or moisture in the clouds) is concerned.  That's not a simple software glitch, as one of the GOES Weather Satellites used to produce the full image, GOES-13 or "GOES East" is out of service.The problem began a few days ago when images from...

Read More

Autumnal Equinox (Fall) Begins at 9:49 AM CDT Today...

Fall will be officially ushered in at 9:49 a.m. central time this morning, as the Autumnal Equinox takes place in the planetary realm.As the new season begins, the Earth's axis will be tilted neither away from the sun nor towards it, allowing the sun's rays to shine directly overhead at the equator before moving into the Southern Hemisphere:Back home in the Northern Hemisphere, the days will get shorter and the nights longer from here on out, leading...

Read More

23rd Anniversary of Hurricane Hugo...

It's hard to believe that 23 years have passed since Hurricane Hugo battered the southeastern U.S.  Shortly after Midnight on September 22, 1989, the center of the category 4 hurricane made landfall on Isle of Palms in South Carolina.At the time, Hugo was the strongest tropical cyclone to strike the U.S. in over 20 years.  Total damage from the storm was estimated at $7 billion (in 1989 dollars), and 49 people lost their lives (26 in the...

Read More

Cooler Weather Settling In Behind Tuesday's Storms...

The cold front that caused widespread heavy rain and severe weather along the Eastern seaboard yesterday ushered in a chilly morning this morning. Readings dipped into the 30s across portions of the Midwest, central and western Great Lakes region, bringing a first frost and/or freeze to many locations.The image at the top of the post shows the forecast departure from normal with respect to temperatures this afternoon.  As you can see, readings...

Read More

Severe Weather, Heavy Rainfall Threat Eastern U.S. Today...

Above is the latest severe weather outlook for today from the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) in Norman, OK.  Severe storms with damaging winds are a significant threat within the red and yellow shaded areas on the image, and to a somewhat lesser degree within the surrounding brown shaded areas.There is also a risk of a few tornadoes today, especially within the yellow and brown shaded areas on the image below:Thunderstorms are already underway...

Read More

A Look at Rainfall Totals in Texas

Above is a summary of precipitation that occurred across Texas, mainly during the period Friday through Sunday.As you can see, widespread amounts of 2-5 inches were received along the I-35 corridor from San Antonio through the Austin area (darker yellow, orange and red shaded areas on the image).The darker green shadings represent 1-2 inch rains, which took place across a significant portion of the state, as well as portions of western and northern...

Read More

Major Storm System to Batter Eastern U.S. Through Wednesday...

The same storm system that brought widespread, beneficial rain to much of Texas over the weekend is just getting started.  Above is a recent water vapor satellite image of the system, with middle and upper level wind flow overlaid on the same image.The system will produce widespread, heavy rainfall across a good portion of the Eastern U.S. over the next 2 days.  The latest precipitation forecast from the HPC is shown below, valid 7am today...

Read More

Typhoon Sanba Bearing Down on Okinawa, Japan...

A very impressive Typhoon Sanba has its eyes (or "eye", literally) on Okinawa, Japan this morning, and it is a formidable storm indeed.  Maximum sustained winds are currently 115 mph with gusts as high as 161 mph.  The wide view of the radar (below) will give you more perspective as to the location and size of the system in relation to Japan as a whole: The visible satellite presentation is just as impressive, with an extremely tight,...

Read More